Tuesday, January 1, 2013

By now most of us have the January NeedlePointers magazine that showcases all the award winners from the 2012 Seminar. I got a question about two weeks ago about the colors Arlene Cohen used in the blue and ecru version of Jean Hilton's "ScottLee" that won an award at the Philly Seminar exhibit. Arlene was kind enough to have sent me photographs of her piece that I used on Blog last spring so I emailed her and asked if she had a thread list. This is what she said in reply:

"I originally saw Scott Lee on a blog and was intrigued by the complexity of stitches and such, although I admit quite turned off by the colors. When I heard that the pattern was available for purchase, I did buy it, thinking that I could do something about the colors. I read Jean's introduction that she was inspired by a rug in her home and that just clicked with me. The rug under my dining room table is a just a basic floral with a blue background and that became my inspiration.

I just now pulled out my pattern book to confirm what I suspected, which is I only have partial notes. As I went along, I know I changed decisions about threads and colors and never wrote it down. I also found the overall piece a little too "busy" and tried to tone that down both with colors choices and by changing some stitches in the inner parts.

The biggest thing to know is that I originally stitched all the Jessicas (I believe that is 166 of them) in the border in DMC Pearl #8 in 794. As I progressed with the piece and began bringing in more blue in the center, I decided that I was really really unhappy with that blue in the border. Out came all those Jessicas and back in they went with Splendor 1029. I think with four strands? I knew that if I didn't change that blue, I was never going to be happy - a great lesson.

Here's what I can put together: for blues, I used a lot of Splendor 1029, with some 1030, and some DMC 793 for the Perle Cottons as needed. For the tans, it was a lot of Splendor 926, 927, and 928, with DMCs 841, 842, and ecru as needed for some stranded parts and for Perle Cottons. I used some green and rose (I think both DMC, 316 and 367) as highlight colors, as my rug has, but truly kept them to highlights, again finding the original pattern had too much variety of color for me.

I hope this is helpful!"

It is very helpful, Arlene. The folks who are interested in trying your version are going to be happy to know all this. Thank you and Happy New Year!

Written by Jane/Chilly HollowBlogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.comand at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

Somewhere on the World Wide Web yesterday I ran across a mention of this Viennese shop that sells petitpoint pieces. I didn't make note of who mentioned it as I was sure I would remember. Oops!

Thanks, whoever you are.

The items for sale are traditional petitipoint, worked in the Berlin woolwork style.

Enjoy browsing the goods. I can't get any of the photos to enlarge but maybe your machine will work better with the site. I was eager to see the hand mirrors better since my Day of the Dead lady has one in her bony hand but alas, the site doesn't like my Mac. http://www.petitpoint.eu/english/aboutus.htmlWritten by Jane/Chilly HollowBlogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.comand at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com